Visualization material depicting the operation of the 'Pantograph Emergency Descent Device' developed by Korea Railroad. Provided by Korea Railroad Corporation.
[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) has developed an emergency lowering device for pantographs and will apply it in the field.
According to Korea Railroad on the 19th, this device monitors the status of the pantograph in real-time during train operation and automatically lowers the pantograph in case of emergency to prevent the catenary wire from breaking and to prevent power supply failures.
The pantograph is equipped with elastic devices such as springs to maintain contact with the catenary wire even at high speeds, but if it is damaged, the elastic device can spring up and cause the catenary wire to break.
In fact, accidents involving pantograph damage occur 2 to 3 times annually on average on metropolitan subway lines, causing power supply failures and resulting in all trains on the affected route being suspended for more than an hour, causing inconvenience.
However, Korea Railroad expects that the introduction of the pantograph emergency lowering device in the field will partially resolve such issues.
This device is a system that detects the pantograph status in real-time and activates emergency operation. It checks for abnormalities through air pressure in the pneumatic chamber and, in case of emergency, releases air to forcibly lower the pantograph.
Korea Railroad has completed test operations of this device and plans to sequentially apply it to new trains introduced from the second half of the year.
Lee Jae-ok, head of the Technology Safety Verification Center at Korea Railroad, said, “We developed this device to alleviate customer inconvenience and reduce costs,” adding, “We expect that the field application of the pantograph emergency lowering device will protect train customers' safety and also reduce maintenance costs.”
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